Drum sticks with potatoes curry

Hello friends! Today I bring you another one of our traditional recipes.This recipe does not require onion, garlic or tomato but now a  days everyone modifies to their taste. I, however, has retained the recipe as it is. So here goes simple, easy and tasty drumstick dish my way. 

Ingredients:

• 4 drumsticks
• 2 potatoes
• 3tbsp gram flour
• 2-3 green chillies
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 2 tbsp tamarind water
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste
• water as required
• coriander leaves to garnish

Method:

Soak tamarind for few mins and squeeze to take out juice of tamarind. Keep it aside. 
Peel, wash and chop potatoes in medium sized cubes. Remove the outer layer of drumsticks and chop into 2 inch pieces.
Boil both the vegetables  taking care not to make drumstick mushy.
In a bowl, mix gram flour, dry spices and tamarind water. Make sure there are no lumps in it.
Heat oil in the pan and add cumin seeds. Once they splutter add chopped green chillies. Saute for a min and then add the tamarind water with gram flour and roast it for few mins Add boiled potatoes and drumsticks and add water accordingly. Boil it for few mins till gravy thickens.  Do not over boil as vegetables are already tender.

Drumstick sabzi goes well with roti or chapati.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve..

Hope you liked this dish.


REMINDER: My give away event ends in a week. Link as many recipes as you can with proper link backs and mandatory rules done in order to qualify. 
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Dal palak ( lentils with spinach)

Hello everyone!  I am back today.. Due to ill health could not update my posts here. Now to start off my today's recipe seems very common and I have had read and tasted many versions of this dish. But the one which really caught my attention was this one. Some months back I had seen this delicious and easy recipe at Deepa's blog  HAMAREE RASOI
I thought wow this has to be very yummy and tasty version and I tried it then only. I had modifed slightly from deepa's post and since then I have made many times. I know many kids do not like spinach but made this way they love it..First hand experience of me.. haha

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup toor dal/arhar dal
• 1 bunch of spinach leaves
• 1tsp haldi/turmeric powder
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• 1tsp amchoor powder or juice of one lemon
• salt to taste
• water as required

For Tadka:

• 1 onion sliced
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 1tsp chopped ginger
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 green chillies chopped
• 2tbsp cumin/jeera seeds
• 1 whole dry red chilli
• few spinach leaves 
• 1 tbsp kasoori methi
• 2-3 tbsp ghee
• a pinch of asafoetida/hing

Method:
Wash the dal and soak it for  30mins to 1hour. In pressure cooker, add dal,  water, salt and turmeric and cook it till 1 whistle.  When steam goes down open the cooker to check if dal is done.  If not done cook it some more mins. Lightly  mash the dal with big spoon and add red chilli powder and amchoor or lemon juice. In the mean time, chop the spinach leaves roughly and wash them. Dry them slightly and keep aside. Add a handful of spinach leaves to dal,mix and cover it.
In another pan, heat ghee, add hing. After half a min add jeera and let it splutter. Add onion and saute it for a min and add garlic cloves and ginger then. Slightly saute and add green chillies chopped, then add dry red chilli and  tomatoes to the pan.  Add a pinch of salt  and mix well. Toss in the remaining spinach leaves and kasoori methi and fry it in the pan. The tadka is ready and immediately put it in dal mixture. Adjust consistency of dal and switch the gas off.   Your dal with palak is ready.  Serve it hot with roti chapati or even rice.
The crunchiness of palak with soft dal just added a great flavour and plus the tadka on top made it look real lovely. I made it bit thinner to have with rice. Hope you like this dish.

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Mix vegetable curry in tomato gravy

Hello everyone! My today's recipe is easy and why? I am sure you all now the different ways to make gravy but this gravy I assure you that you don't need any extra pastes to make it thick or creamy or very heavy. This is simplified form of the tomato gravy. Lets cook this one now.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 tomatoes
• 1 cup of mix vegetables chopped ( I used carrot, capsicum, peas, beans, bottle gourd, cauliflower & potatoes)
• 1tsp jeera
• 1tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1tsp turmeric
• salt to taste
• 2 green chillies
• 1tbsp oil
• 1 onion sliced
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 1 small piece of ginger chopped
• coriander leaves to garnish

Method:
 Boil tomatoes in little water and make puree out of it when cold. Keep aside. In a pan, heat oil and add jeera. Once jeera splutters add onion and saute it for 2-3 mins. Do not brown the onions. Add ginger and garlic and saute it for 1 min. Add green chilli chopped and then add all the vegetables in any order.  Add all masalas  and mix it well. Add some water to allow the vegetables to cook. Once half done add the tomato puree. Check the salt level here. Mix and cook till required consistency. Mix veg curry is ready and serve it hot garnished with coriander leaves. This gravy can be eaten with rice,poori or chapathi.. Enjoy cooking.

Notes: The above measurements are for representation purpose only. Adjust as per your requirements. 
I did not add any cashews or poppy paste or any paste here and kept it simple. Its easy and cooks fast. 

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Dudhi with chana dal/Bottle gourd with lentils

Hi everyone! How have you all been? My today's recipe is very easy and simple one again. Ha Ha and I am sure you all must be thinking, what!! another simple one, but trust me you would love it. So should we begin. Dudhi or bottle gourd we have in many ways, some spicy or some sweet. Lets hear what you have to say to this one.

Ingredients:

• 1 bottlegourd/dudhi
• 2 green chillies
• 1/2 cup chana dal soaked for 1hour
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder/haldi
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder/ dhaniya powder
• 1/4 tsp  Dry mango powder/ amchoor powder or lemon juice
•  1tbsp oil
•  a pinch of hing
•  1 small piece of ginger chopped
• coriander leaves to garnish

Method: 

Chop dudhi into small pieces. In a cooker, put oil to heat and add green chillies cut in small pieces. Add hing and stir for a minute.  Add dudhi and put chana dal which has been soaked earlier. Mix and add all the masalas. Now add little water  and cover and cook till 1 whistle. Let the pressure cooker cool down on its own. Open and mash chana dal dudhi mixture slightly so it thickens. If its too thick add some water and if its too watery let it cook for some time to get desired consistency. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and ginger and serve hot with rice or chapati. 

There is a dry method to make this or keep it like gravy. 

Over to you for feedback...

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Paneer Pasanda

Hello all! Happy Independence Day to everyone. Today on occasion of 65^th Independence day I thought let me share with you a recipe which till I made was new to me but I am sure my friends here know about it very well. Paneer pasanda I had heard the name only but never knew what the difference was and why such name. After making it I realized its because we love paneer  so the name comes. I saw this recipe on tv and I felt I could make it. I made few changes in the gravy but still it turned awesome. Paneer pasanda is made using paneer cutlets in gravy. Again patience as it takes some time to make it. Hope you all like the recipe.

                                                                PANEER PASANDA

Ingredients for paneer cutlet:

• 1 cup crumbled paneer
• 2 tbsp Maida
• 1/2tsp Pepper
• Salt to taste
• 3 bread slices
• Oil as needed for shallow frying.

(if you need you can stuff paneer also which I didn’t do this time)

Ingredients for gravy:

• 1 ½ cup onion sliced
• 1tsp ginger garlic paste
• ½  cup curd
• ½ tsp garam masala powder
• ½ tsp  red chilli powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2-3 green chillies (if you want more spicy gravy)
• Coriander leaves to garnish.
• (additional  some cashewnut  pieces)

Method:

In a bowl mix crumbled paneer, salt, pepper, bread slices and maida. Give desired shape to paneer cutlets.  Heat  a pan with some oil and shallow fry all the cutlets till cooked on both sides. Keep it aside.

                                                             Paneer cutlets

Take another pan. Add 1 tbsp oil from gravy ingredients and  fry onions, ginger garlic paste, green chilli and cashews if you are adding.  After onions change color, remove from heat and let it cool. Then grind the whole thing with little water to make a paste.

Heat the pan again and add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. Fry the ground paste of onions for 3-4minutes. Add garam masala powder and chilli powder and fry for a minute.  Beat the curd well and add it in this mix. Cook the whole thing till oil starts to separate.  Add ½ cup water and bring the gravy to boil. And don’t forget to add namak shamak, salt at this point.

Put the cutlets in bowl and pour gravy over it.  Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

Notes: cutlets can be deep fried and stuffed. Gravy should be the right consistency.  Beat the curd well to prevent it from curdling. My gravy does look curdled though but it has given it a different look than what I saw on tv.

Hope you enjoy paneer pasanda. Let me know what you think.

Linked to Minnie's  WEEKEND GALA DINNER EXTRAVAGANZA 2

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Dudhi kofta/ghiya kofta with gravy

Hello all my friends! My today's recipe is bit lengthy and it requires some patience which sadly I seem to lack but well I had to make this correctly. Please excuse the quality of the pics as somehow I could not keep my hand steady. Today's menu is dudhi kofta. Hmmm, looks like your mouth started watering eh!  Lets start our koftas and gravy.

Ingredients:

2 cups  Ghiya or Lauki (bottlegourd), peeled and grated.

1 large Onion (chopped)

1 large Tomato (chopped)

8-10 cashewnuts

3-4 large spoons of gram flour (besan)

2 tbsp Yoghurt/curd

1 tsp Ginger garlic paste

1/2 tsp Black pepper powder

3-4 chopped Green chilies

1 tsp whole Cumin seeds

1 tsp Coriander-Cumin powder

1/4 tsp Turmeric powder

1 tsp Red Chili powder

Salt (according to taste) 

Oil to deep fry 

Chopped Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

Squeeze water out of the ghiya; mix in salt, ginger and black pepper. Add  besan, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder and coriander-cumin powder, mix well and give desired shape. I gave them bit oblong shape.

Deep-fry koftas to a golden brown and keep aside. 

                                                                     Koftas

Put green chillies, onion, yoghurt,cashewnuts and tomatoes all together in a blender and make puree out of it.

Add 2 large spoons of oil in a kadhai/pan.

Add  ginger-garlic paste and stir for few mins then add  the puree to it. Continuously stir the masala for few mins..

Add the dry masala, i.e. red chili powder, coriander-cumin powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste.

Add 2 cups of water to make the gravy. Boil the gravy till its ready.

Add koftas into the gravy or pour hot gravy on the koftas.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve hot with chapati or rice.

Note: If you plan to serve later then add koftas in plate and pour gravy while serving. If kofta stick in your hands add more besan.

Hope you all like it. Over to you for feedback, friends…

I also got award from  Punitha at South India food recipes .
Thank you Punitha

I would like to share this award with  all my lovely blogger friends. 

 

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Mix vegetables with chana dal

Hello!  Today I would share with you one of our recipes which I myself like it and its again very easy to make.   I really need to say this because of all my blogging friends and who are all great cooks I was also inspired to write about my recipes or rather what  I cook at home and as I was told, cooking is bit of this and bit of that.  So here we go….

Today recipe is mix vegetables with chana dal and once again you are free to make variations as you find it fit. Please adjust all seasonings according to your taste. Let’s start our recipe…

Ingredients:

¼ cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal) washed and soaked for  1/2hr

2-3  small brinals

2 medium sized potatoes

½  dudhi or ghiya or bottle gourd.

2-3 tomatoes

One small piece of yam or sooran

2-3 green chillies

1 small piece of ginger

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp coriander powder

1/4tsp dry mango powder

1/4tsp red chilli powder

1tbsp oil

Salt to taste

A pinch of hing

Water as required

Coriander leaves to garnish.

Method:

Cut all vegetables in small cube sized pieces.   Take a heavy bottomed pan and put oil. Once it heats add green chillies cut in small pieces and add hing. Stir for a min then add all vegetables and soaked dal.  Stir it and add atleast 1 cup of water.  Add salt and stir it. Cover and cook for 15 mins or if you are using pressure cooker then cook till 2 whistles come as dal has to become soft.  Open pan and check if dal is cooked.  Using a mashing spoon roughly mash the entire mixture.  Do not make pulp out of it. Just mash the vegetables and dal roughly.  Add all the spices and cook for 2-3 minutes. Adjust water if the gravy is too dry. If its more watery cook bit more. Add chopped ginger here for added flavor.   Finally its done.  Garnish with coriander leaves  and serve it hot with rice, poori or chapatti.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think.

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Aloo matar/peas potato vegetable with gravy

Hello everyone! Today I would share with you the way I make aloo mutter. It’s a very common dish but I just modified a bit  and end result was very yummy.

Ingredients:

1/4kg  baby potatoes

1 cup boiled peas ( I used frozen peas)

2 tomatoes

1 onion

2 spring onion with leaves

1tbsp ginger garlic paste

¼ tsp   jeera /cumin seeds

1/4tsp  haldi/turmeric powder

2 green chillies chopped finely

1/4tsp  coriander powder

¼ tsp  red chilli powder (skip if u don’t want it too spicy)

¼ tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

2tbsp oil

Method:

Boil the baby potatoes. Let it cool and peel off the skin. Make sure they are not over boiled. Grate onions and tomatoes and keep them separate. In a pan heat oil, add jeera. Sauté it for a minute, add green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Stir it for a min then add grated onions. Let it cook till onion turns slight pink, add the cut spring onion white part here.   Sauté it for a min again and add tomatoes here. Stir it for few mins  and add all the masalas here. Keep spring onion greens cut and separate. Add slight water here  so all masala  and tomato is cooked. Add potatoes, peas and salt and stir them till all masalas are coated to potatoes. Add more water if necessary. Add spring onion greens and let them cook for few mins.

Aloo matar with spring onions is ready. Serve with plain rice or chapatti or naan. Hope you like this and do let me know your views

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